NY Daily News’ Owners Slash Paper’s Newsroom in Half
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
In the latest cutback of journalism jobs, the staff of the newsroom at The Daily News, which is owned by the newspaper conglomerate Tronc, was sliced in half on Monday. Editor in chief, Jim Rich, was one of those let go.
According to the New York Times, a meeting to inform the employees of the cuts took place a little after 9 a.m. Monday morning at the seventh-floor newsroom in Lower Manhattan-- it lasted under a minute.
Approximately “50 members of the newspaper’s staff were in attendance,” reported the Times. “The group did not include Mr. Rich or Kristen Lee, the managing editor, who is leaving as part of Tronc’s aggressive plan.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTTronc is the media company that owns The News. However, these layoffs were not unexpected. “The blog Study Hall reported on Thursday that a large percentage of the staff was to be laid off and that Mr. Rich would not be returning to the newsroom after a vacation. Some news employees started packing last week.”
If you hate democracy and think local governments should operate unchecked and in the dark, then today is a good day for you.
— Jim Rich (@therealjimrich) July 23, 2018
Rich took to Twitter to share his thoughts, tweeting at 1:40 am Monday morning: “If you hate democracy and think local governments should operate unchecked and in the dark, then today is a good day for you.” His bio now reads: “Just a guy sitting at home watching journalism being choked into extinction.”
The sports department was slashed from 35 to 9 and the cuts included Frank Isola.
Celeste Katz, a previous employee of the Daily News, chimed in through Twitter as well. “I was a proud New York Daily News reporter from 2000-2015, and I am horrified by today’s cuts. This great city loses out with the gutting of a paper that’s been fearless in championing the vulnerable against the venal. Please hire the ex-Newsers who need work. You won’t go wrong.”
I was a proud New York Daily News reporter from 2000-2015, and I am horrified by today’s cuts. This great city loses out with the gutting of a paper that’s been fearless in championing the vulnerable against the venal. Please hire the ex-Newsers who need work. You won’t go wrong.
— Celeste Katz (@CelesteKatzNYC) July 23, 2018
The Daily News' rival the New York Post wrote in an editorial, "Monday’s mass layoffs at the Daily News are bad news for New York: This town needs more good reporters, not fewer. The numbers are brutal: a newsroom staff slashed in half; no staff photographers at a place that long billed itself as 'New York’s Picture Newspaper.' A sports department down from 34 people to just nine — how can a New York tabloid survive with that?"
According to The New York Times, Tronc purchased The News in September 2017 for a reported $1 from Mortimer B. Zuckerman, best known for being a media proprietor and New York real estate developer.
“In a memo sent to the paper’s employees minutes after the quick Monday morning meeting, the company said that it had been working to transform the tabloid into a publication better suited to the digital age,” said The Times. The News also added in the memo that it would focus more “on breaking news-- especially in areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility.”
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